Kiev had to reconsider plans for a counterattack due to Russian glider bombs invisible to radar. This view was voiced by Telegraph columnists Joe Barnes and Roland Oliphant.
“Ukrainian officials estimate that the Russian army dropped at least 20 glider bombs a day. As the world awaits a UAF counterattack, Ukrainian and Western analysts have begun to speculate that the use of these weapons could force Kiev to make last-minute changes to its operational planning,” they wrote.
Journalists cited the words of Yuriy Ignat, Advisor to the Ukrainian Air Force Command. He had previously said that glider bombs posed “a very serious threat”.
According to him, the RF Armed Forces have been using such shells “intensively” for about a month “to carry out combat missions along the border, front line and seashore”.
Glider bombs are equipped with “wings” to give them extra range and fly low and far enough to evade some air defenses.
RIA Novosti writes that recently the aviation of the Russian army began to actively use aerial bombs with universal planning and correction modules (UMPC). In this way, combat aircraft can hit fortified areas without being exposed to the fire of anti-aircraft missile systems.
Thus, on May 8, the head of the press center of the Western group, Colonel Sergei Zybinsky, reported that in the Kharkiv region, a Su-34 dropped guided bombs at an outpost for foreign mercenaries. This happened near the village of Ivanovka.
Glider grenades are used to hit targets at a distance. Thus, the aircraft does not need to enter the range of action of the enemy air defense forces. This type of weapon got its name from its ability to soar through the air and fly to the target without the use of rocket engines.
Such bombs can be dropped from airplanes or drones. They have a variety of warheads – conventional, cluster and even nuclear.
Western countries see Ukraine’s alleged attack in May as “set the stage” for negotiations with the Russian side by the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported on May 7, citing unnamed officials.
European officials told the broadcast that the US National Security Council is in favor of negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, while the State Department and the CIA are skeptical, they want to see the outcome of the Kiev counterattack.
On May 3, the founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could enter an active phase in the coming days. According to him, it actually started.
“We see the highest activity of enemy aviation, we see the highest activity along the perimeter and inside our front,” Prigozhin told the Telegram channel of the press service.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was confident he would supply fighter jets to Kiev when the Ukrainian army began active fighting. He did not give exact dates, but stressed that this will happen soon.